European Middle and Upper Palaeolithic radiocarbon dates are often older than they look: problems with previous dates and some remedies

Antiquity - Tập 85 Số 327 - Trang 235-249 - 2011
Thomas Higham1
1Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK

Tóm tắt

Few events of European prehistory are more important than the transition from ancient to modern humans around 40 000 years ago, a period that unfortunately lies near the limit of radiocarbon dating. This paper shows that as many as 70 per cent of the oldest radiocarbon dates in the literature may be too young, due to contamination by modern carbon. Future dates can be made more secure — and previous dates revised — using more refined methods of pre-treatment described here.

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Antiquity

Tập 85 Số 327

235-249

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